Blaze and the Monster Machines
is a CGI interactive musical educational children's television series produced and created by Nickelodeon. It follows the adventures of a monster truck named Blaze and his best friend and driver, AJ, as they explore and teach viewers the concepts of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). It is a show that airs on Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon. The show's first episode aired on October 13, 2014 on the main Nickelodeon channel. As of August 16, 2019, the show is currently in its fifth season. About Set in an alternate universe mostly populated by sentient vehicles, mainly monster trucks, the series centers around Blaze, a monster truck who loves racing and adventure, accompanied by his human driver companion AJ. Each episode is based on a series of events that differ depending on the plot, and throughout the adventure the two encounter obstacles which have to be overcome. During these obstacles, he and AJ will have a problem to be solved with "assistance" from the viewing audience, often relating to riddles, counting, or others. Certain problems also feature the episode's featured STEM concept, Crusher stopping Blaze with a cheat which he always manages to get past, and his Blazing Speed, which is used as a last-minute device to get to something super fast and right on time. The episode always ends with Blaze and AJ finishing their mission and doing something to celebrate. Blaze and AJ have many friends, mainly the trucks that they mostly hang out with, Stripes, Starla, Darington, Zeg, and later Watts, as well as Gabby the human mechanic. Their main adversary is Crusher, a mean truck who likes to cheat, and goes all out to stop Blaze from winning or following him. He is accompanied by a small monster truck named Pickle, who serves as the voice of reason for his schemes and idolizes Blaze. The missions of each episode vary depending on the plot. Some involve Blaze trying to get something in time, others require him to help one of his friends, and others have a race which takes up the entire episode, which always end with Blaze winning. The plot is also accompanied by original songs sung by Blaze and AJ themselves, usually offscreen during montages, whenever they are setting off or demonstrate the STEM concept featured. In some episodes, mainly those where Blaze has to help a friend, the plot is sometimes altered with a subplot involving Crusher and Pickle with their own prediciments, which do not interfere with the main storyline but follow its theme in some way. In the subplot, Crusher is trying to do something but humorously fails each time. The subplot usually shows up three times in an episode (usually the first after the second featured song, the second after the second problem, and the third before the credits). There are rare occurrences where the subplot intersects with the main plot, in which something causes something to happen to Blaze or the two end up joining him. Official Descriptions (from Nickjr.com) "Blaze and the Monster Machines is a CG interactive series for preschoolers featuring Blaze, the world's most amazing monster truck, and his driver and best friend, 8-year-old AJ. The series follows their adventures in Axle City--a town populated with big-wheeled vehicles known as monster machines. Blaze is Axle City's greatest hero and the champion of the racetrack! Whenever there's trouble, he's the truck everyone turns to for help because he can do things no other truck can! Blaze has Blazing Speed--a special turbo boost that lets him accelerate in times of need to go faster than any other monster machine. But Blaze has more than just speed. He also has the power to transform into any other vehicle or machine! Using his knowledge of engineering, Blaze can add new parts to himself and change into anything. From a hydrofoil to a hang glider to even a hair dryer, if you can engineer it, Blaze can become it! AJ and the home audience help Blaze on his adventures by exploring the physics of how things move, tackling problems through scientific inquiry and mathematics, and discovering the component parts necessary to make everyday technologies work." - Nickjr.com, 2014-15 "Blaze and the Monster Machines features Blaze, the world's most amazing monster truck, and his driver, AJ. Preschoolers help Blaze on his adventures in Axle City, solving problems based on a STEM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, math)." - Nickjr.com, 2015-present Characters * Blaze: The main protagonist, a red monster truck who loves racing and going on adventures. He asks the viewers at home to help him on his missions and to teach the STEM concept featured. His signature power is Blazing Speed, which allows him to go super fast. He can also transform into various other vehicles and artifacts. ** Voiced by Nolan North. * AJ: The deuteragonist, Blaze's best friend, an 8-year old boy who is his driver. He is an expert at technology. ** Voiced by Dusan Brown (S1), Caleel Harris (S2-3), and Ramone Hamilton (S4-onward). ** Singing by Jacquez Swanigan (S1-2) and Reed L. Shannon (S3-onward). * Crusher: Blaze and AJ's rival and the show's anti-hero. A dark blue monster truck who's sneaky and cunning, and is so determined to win every race that he even cheats, and gets upset when he doesn’t get what he wants. He constructs various inventions using junk from the bag on his chassis. ** Voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. * Pickle: A small green monster truck and Crusher's underappreciated and goofy sidekick. He often watches out for Crusher and always looks on the good side of things. He's good friends with Blaze and the others. ** Voiced by Nat Faxon. * Gabby: A 9-year old girl mechanic who fixes broken trucks. She owns a toolbox that is equipped every tool she can use. She's close friends with Blaze and AJ. In Season 3, she becomes Watts' driver. ** Voiced by Angelina Wahler (S1-3) and Molly Jackson (Late S3-onward). * Stripes: A yellow-orange tiger monster truck with purple stripes. He has the abilities of a tiger, such as a huge sense of smell and retractable claws in his tires. ** Voiced by Sunil Malhotra. * Starla: A purple cowgirl monster truck who is a lasso expert and speaks with a Southern accent. ** Voiced by Kate Higgins. * Darington: A blue and white stunt monster truck who enjoys doing tricks and stunts. ** Voiced by Alexander Polinsky. * Zeg: A light green dinosaur monster truck who's half triceratops, has limited vocabulary and likes smashing things. ** Voiced by James Patrick Stuart. * Watts: A hot pink and silver monster truck with electric tires, she joins the gang in Season 3. She can make electricity with her Electric Charging powers. ** Voiced by Melanie Minichino. Format All episodes generally follow a similar format, featuring the following: *Blaze and AJ doing something that sets up the episode's plot. *Breaking the fourth wall and viewer participation. Blaze and AJ will often ask the viewers at home to help them with what's going on at the moment to solve the problem, either finding something, counting to a specific number, choosing the right object or path, or other reasons. Usually three major problems would occur throughout the episode. *The STEM concepts. Each episode focuses on a specific topic, which becomes the main theme of the episode and is used several times throughout. The "Wild Wheels" episodes do not feature STEM concepts, instead focusing on various animal facts. *The various episodic songs. Usually two songs would play per episode, the first when Blaze and AJ are starting their mission, the second focusing on the episode's featured STEM concept and the two demonstrate such. Songs are normally sung by Blaze and AJ, and are usually sung offscreen during montages, though there are rare occasions where characters sing onscreen as well. *Crusher sending out an invention of his to stop Blaze from following him, but Blaze finds a way to stop it. *Blaze transforming into something else to get through an obstacle. *In some episodes, Crusher and Pickle have their own subplot that's related to the episode's plot, but is separate from the main story. In these subplots, Crusher is trying to do something but keeps messing up and always fails at what he wants to do. The subplots show up three times, with the third usually being the episode's final scene. *Blazing Speed. When the time is running short, Blaze will use Blazing Speed to go super fast and get there just in time. He will deploy his special speed boosters and ask the viewer to help him go super fast by saying "Let's Blaze!". After such, he will unleash the speed. It is used usually once per episode. *Crusher getting the episode's last laugh, followed by an iris out on him. Episodes So far, every season consists of 20 episodes each. Season 1 .]] The first season started on October 13, 2014 and ended on February 18, 2016. This is the first season of the show, which began with the premiere movie Blaze of Glory. The last episode didn't air until a few episodes after Season 2 began airing. Unlike other seasons, this does not feature special themed episodes. Season 2 The second season started on September 25, 2015 and ended on April 14, 2017. Season 1 still had one episode left to air when it started. This season featured the "Race Car Adventures" themed episodes, which feature Blaze going to VelocityVille and turning into a race car; the STEM concepts featured in those episodes are congruent to what race cars use. Six episodes were planned for this theme, but only four aired this season, with the last two airing as part of Season 3. Similar to Season 1, the last episode was not aired until a little while into Season 3. Season 3 The third season was announced June 15, 2015. It started on October 10, 2016 and ended on February 22, 2018. Like Season 1, the past season had only one episode left to air when it began. Like Season 2, this episode features six special episodes with a theme of "Wild Wheels", which feature Blaze going to Animal Island and hanging out with all kinds of animals. Unlike other episodes, these episodes don't feature STEM concepts but instead feature various animal facts and focus on one particular animal. Season 4 The fourth season was announced June 21, 2016. It started on March 26, 2018. Like the past two seasons, it features six special themed episodes, this time the theme is "Robot Riders". These episodes feature Blaze transforming into a robot to handle really dangerous tasks a monster truck can't do. The STEM concepts featured in these episodes generally involve robotics and are congruent to what robots are meant for. Season 5 The fifth season was announced May 22, 2018. According to Nickelodeon's press release, Season 5 "takes all terrain to a new level with monster-sized racing adventures. Monster truck Blaze and his eight-year-old driver AJ will travel over land, under the sea and into orbit as Blaze transforms into awesome new vehicles designed to push the limit while helping his friends cross the finish line." Changes to Season 2 * Crusher's subplot was introduced. Changes to Season 3 onward * Viewer greetings became rare. * AJ's Visor View and skywriting are almost completely abandoned, instead just checking where to go with no technology needed and projecting what to do or use on either his watch or Blaze's screen. * In the first two seasons, Blaze usually described the STEM concept; by the time the animation changed, AJ describes it more times than Blaze does. Character design notes *All vehicles are designed with their eyes positioned where their headlights go, like most cartoon cars. *All trucks have black eyes; the only exceptions are Blaze himself, whose are blue, and the dragon in Knighty Knights, whose are golden. *Some trucks have generic treadmarks, while the Monster Machines and some special guest stars have a special shape as such (example: Blaze's tires have flame designs). *Whenever a truck's eyes are closed, a thin strip is seen on their eyelids; when squeezed tightly shut, a squished, thick number 3 symbol is used. ** By the time the animation was redesigned mid-Season 3, these graphics became smaller. *All trucks are drawn with closed tops and opaque windows; Blaze and Watts are the sole exceptions. Trivia * The original copyright for this show was filed on October 2, 2012. * This was the last interactive Nick Jr. show until Blue’s Clues & You in 2019. * The show is currently one of only four first-run shows to air new episodes on Nick Jr. on Nick as all other shows have moved to the Nick Jr. channel, with the other three being PAW Patrol, Ryan's Mystery Playdate and Dora the Explorer for its final six unaired episodes. Gallery Blaze and AJ early promotional artwork.jpg Watts character promo.png Zeg character promo.png Starla character promo.png Darington character promo.png Stripes character promo.png Crusher character promo.png Blaze character promo.png Category:Series